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hectaizani's review against another edition
4.0
A history of the rise and fall of comics in the United States in the 1940's and 1950's.
spitzig's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting depiction of the the comic book scare. The book did a good job of depicting the progression of the demonization of comics. Nothing really revolutionary to me, though. Also, I think more could have been said about the aftermath of the scare.
stevenyenzer's review against another edition
3.0
This book is more like a history of comic books in America up through the formation of the Comics Code, with a special focus on that period. There are a lot of biographical sketches of folks who seemed of somewhat incidental importance; I had trouble tracking all of the names.
bhurlbut's review against another edition
3.0
A solid piece of history and interesting up to a point. Hajdu never really spells out how the Great Comic Book Scare changed America. It clearly places it within the realm of postwar paranoiacs and fretting over "evil" influences in the life and culture of the country, but the book never quite gets off the ground. Still, it is an interesting subject and well covered.
scheu's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed The Ten-Cent Plague, but I have a significant gripe. If you're going to force the reader through the origins of comic books (the beginning of the story, and information I've been over multiple times), you ought to give them the end of the story as well. Horror comics didn't go away. Marvel, DC, and Warren were publishing many of them in the 1970s, and the ones I read as a kid were pretty gruesome. The Comics Code that was created to police the industry became a joke that was either ignored or completely abandoned. The masses and their hysteria moved elsewhere as we all realised that our problems weren't really rooted in comics.
Best of all, comics are still here.
Best of all, comics are still here.
alexriviello's review against another edition
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kmatthe2's review against another edition
5.0
A really smart and well-written look into postwar culture via comics. While the larger narrative of comics' demise might be familiar to some, the hundreds of interviews Hajdu included reframes the story altogether such that it looks at larger tensions in America to define self and place. A great read -- even if you're not into comics.